Democratic Self-Defense in Africa

The empirical record across the African continent has a great deal to teach us globally about successful strategies of democratic self-defense. Our analysis of cases where democratic backsliding was attempted but then thwarted and reversed suggests several important lessons for the ways in which democratic regimes and actors can actively defend and sustain themselves. Our argument is that interactive effects between non-violent social movements (including protest, strikes, picketing, symbolic art & music, etc) and formal institutional protections are key to make these institutional sites function as guardrails for democratic defense. In particular, the role of the courts is highly variable across social contexts. Our cases demonstrate instances where the courts have taken highly significant roles as democratic defenders, to uphold the rules against would-be executive aggrandizers and/or to re-run flawed elections, and these are contexts where social mobilization is high in demanding democracy-enforcing institutional action.